CAIRO: Al-Jazeera journalist Howayda Taha was arrested by Egyptian police for a second time Monday for allegedly filming without the proper permits.
Taha told Daily News Egypt that she was filming a documentary on a farm on the outskirts of Cairo for Al-Jazeera before being detained by police Monday morning, and was questioned until 2:30 am Tuesday morning.
Taha said she showed the police all the required permits from the Egyptian press center but was then asked for a permit from the Ministry of Interior.
Despite explaining that the censors at the interior ministry had given her permission to film, though they had not provided a printed permit, she was taken into custody.
Taha said that although she was released after the interrogation police told her that the investigation is ongoing.
She added that she will resume filming: “I will continue with the documentary, but I will have to be careful, she laughed.
The Ministry of Interior was unavailable to comment on the matter.
Her lawyer Ahmed Helmi, who was present during the interrogation, told The Associated Press that, “She is under a constant police watch. They want to ban her from working in Egypt.
Taha’s cameraman was also detained, and an Egyptian human rights activist named Hamdi Maabad – who was her guide for that part of the filming – was questioned by authorities.
Maabad is a researcher with an NGO called the Land Center, which receives complaints related to farmers’ issues, agricultural workers and children or women working in the agricultural sector in Egypt.
Taha was previously sentenced in absentia last May by Egypt’s state security criminal court to six months imprisonment and fined $5,200 for “harming Egypt’s national interest over a documentary she was making on torture in Egypt’s prisons – “Beyond the Sun – which has since been aired.
She spent a month in prison before leaving for Qatar where Al-Jazeera’s headquarters are.
The judge due to hear her appeal in that case, Mahmoud Hamza, stepped down citing a “conflict of interest. It is believed Hamza supported Taha’s cause.
Taha is due back in court Feb. 11 to hear the verdict of her appeal, and said she is “neither optimistic nor pessimistic about the possible outcome.
The documentary Taha is currently filming is named “In The Shadow, and deals with the marginalized segments of Egyptian society
